If Karen Oganesyan's "The Ghost" hadn't been so blatantly tooled as an item for Hollywood remake, it might have proved to be a clever fusion of the twin Russian obsessions for the criminal underground and the literary world. When the film's bestselling crime novelist hits a creative slump and finds sudden inspiration from a hitman who could have popped from the pages of one of his tomes, the action flirts with outright comedy, but turns into a merely mediocre shoot-'em-up straining for effect. Surefire local B.O. likely will gird a future deal with a Stateside studio.
Author Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) is signing copies of his latest book, "The Ghost's Revenge," in a Moscow bookstore when he witnesses hitman Mikhail (Vladimir Mashkov) perform a swift assassination across the street. Beset with his own personal and familial demons, Anton proves vulnerable to Mikhail's entreaties to let him provide the author with an insider's view of the life of a killer-for-hire. Even half-interested viewers will be far ahead of Anton in his shock that he's become a pawn in Mikhail's larger game, which turns out to be only slightly intriguing ...

The deliberate pacing of Russian narratives can sometimes be difficult for North American audiences to adjust to but for people who can adapt to the slightly more plodding style of storytelling, The Ghost is worth seeking out.
This somewhat conventional thriller follows the story of Anton (Konstantin Khabensky), a crime novelist who witnesses the daylight assassination of a mob informant. After getting over the shock of viewing a scenario he’s fictionally written about so often, Anton wants to bring more reality to his prose.
The assassin (Vladimir Mashkov), who approached Anton for an autograph moments prior to the murder, seeks out the author and offers to tell his story and grant Anton insight into the world of murder for hire. Anton takes on the role of confessor, using the assassin’s real life exploits to help his writing as he works to understand the mind of a cold-blooded, methodical killer, going so far as to plot a pretend assassination so he can feel the thrill of the hunt.
The Ghost weaves an intricate story that, though a little predictable and lacking the action of a Hollywood thriller, is captivating and well thought out. Khabensky, who North American audiences might recognize from the action packed Russian fantasy film Night Watch (Nochoy Dozor) and its less enjoyable sequel Day Watch (Dnevno Dozor), gives a solid performance as a novelist struggling with his inner demons, testing the limits of his experience. ...